I've said it before in the past and I'll say it again now. I would like to think that if EA had went forward with their original plans and given us a proper version of Generals 2 (i.e. NOT the F2P version) then things would probably be okay right now and C&C would still be pretty relevant and popular. I will try this game out just for the sake of trying it out, but I don't really enjoy mobile games and how good they are or what franchise they are from are irrelevant factors. Mobile simply isn't a very engaging platform for long term gameplay, imo (although I will confess that The Elder Scrolls: Blades looks legit interesting).

A lot of those errors are either rather specific (OBS breaking in options menu) or multiplayer related. I never played AoM online in either of it's formats (original retail or extended edition) and usually stick to campaigns and skirmish, so the chances of me running into most of these EE bugs are pretty low. It's unfortunate for those who are committed to the game and the games community to have to deal with these issues, but my overall experience with AoM EE has been positive. I suppose the only thing I can say is that, for the sake of the dedicated players, I hope these bugs get squashed at some point soon.

Say what you will about Relic, Windows Store, Windows 10 exclusive, etc. but I am at least thankful that Microsoft still sees AoE as a franchise worth maintaining, especially in the midst of the already struggling RTS genre. I am personally excited for AoE Definitive Edition and am also pessimistically optimistic about AoE IV.

yeah man tiberium is totally lame scrub tier trash for noobs. also kane is totally pointless and cringy now and if they would have gotten rid of him in 4 it would have been game of the century for sure breh.

1. I am not sure what those initials stand for. There are many different eSports organization out there now, so there are a lot that I have never heard of.
2. I am not necessarily sure what you mean by "connect", but I assume you are asking about what it is that makes these games stand out as popular eSports games? It has to do with a lot of different factors really. Fraydo mentioned already that team eSports are big because of the nature of team based gameplay. A lot of games also derive their popularity from the franchise itself (eg. Hearthstone is part of the Warcraft franchise) as well as developers/publishers being keen observers of the growth of eSports. I don't personally watch any of the games that you have listed but, having become a fan of fighting games in recent months, I have watched eSports events that host various fighting games (Mortal Kombat X, Street Fighter, Killer Instinct) and have become somewhat familiar with some of the top players in those communities. Fighting games have a bit of a different attraction compared to the other games that you listed, so explaining what creates their appeal may need a separate post.
3. No real experience with actual eSports events myself. All I've ever done is watch highlights or compilations made by other people on Youtube.
4. Going off of what Fraydo said, I think the thing that surprises me is how the eSports scene basically exploded almost overnight. It's wasn't more than just a few years ago that most pro gaming tournaments took place only in hotel event rooms and various other low key places. Now we are at the point where video game tournaments are selling out massive arenas and stadiums all over the world and being broadcasted on big name television sports channels like ESPN. It's completely ridiculous (in more ways than one).

Not only was it the more conservative voters becoming sick and tired of constantly having insulting labels thrust onto them simply because of their support of Trump as a candidate, but at the same time a lot of the voters were also highly disenfranchised liberals who were sick and tired of all of the failed democratic policies, party arrogance, as well as seeing the democratic party mindlessly begin pandering and supporting these crazy Millennial SJW's. There are so many factors that lead to the victory for Trump, but a lot of those factors can directly be placed on the shoulders of progressive liberals. It's mostly a matter of said progressive liberals now reaping what they have sown, and some of them (and I emphasize some) are becoming aware of the fact that this is largely their own doing.

Not quite technically a free game but for those that want to play a fighting game over the weekend Mortal Kombat X is having an open beta test over the next few days in order to test the netcode for the forth coming XL update. You don't need to own MKX in order to play it; just go to the Steam store page for MKX and look for the open beta notification and you can download it there.
This is multiplayer only beta, so if you have 1v1 gaming anxiety you may want to pass on this.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/307780/